Beatles News
A frail-looking Yoko Ono was spotted visiting two of John Lennon's childhood homes on Friday after traveling from her New York home to Liverpool.
The artist, who was married to Lennon from 1969 until his death in 1980, was in the city to open a museum show dedicated to their relationship, filled with exhibits from her own private collection.
While in Liverpool she visited Mendips, the home where Lennon spent most of his childhood, and took a photo of herself in his bedroom.
Source: Daily Mail
The Beatles were at the heart of the cradle in which our contemporary world was nurtured. And George Harrison was the Beatle whose output was sidelined to the benefit of his peers Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Two documentaries on Netflix offer a chance to assess their relative contributions to popular culture. Do we thank Hitler for the dank irony that his twisted vision of a tyrannical Reich created the perfect climate for the great wave of cultural change that followed in its wake? Would the Sixties have been what they were without him? And the Twenties. A decade you would have loved to have lived through were it not for the knowledge that it was sandwiched, more or less, between the two world wars. Would the Flapper era and the Jazz Age now so closely associated with F Scott Fitzgerald have been what they were without the draconian mayhem that had been their precursor? And does this have any meaning for our current mess of a world?
Source: Tony Jackman/dailymaverick.co.za
"He say one and one and one is three..." Abbey Road by the Beatles is playing through my Bluetooth headphones, sent from my iPhone, music streaming from Amazon Prime, over satellite WiFi, on the commercial jet that is taking me from Phoenix to Long Beach. So much innovation and world-changing disruption in one event. It’s one moment in our modern world.
It got me thinking about the pace and crazy enormity of the changes in our world. The amount of change, and the new industries created by them are so familiar now that I think we take it for granted. Such pretentious deep thoughts are the sort of thing that I enjoy contemplating while trying to ignore the guy in the seat next to me, who is hogging far more than his fair share of the armrest.
The Beatles are a great example of the revolution that is our new norm. Usually, we think about technology chips, machines, and software that turn the world upside down. But the Beatles did the same thing to popular music.
Source: Eric Miller
George Harrison’s life had transformed through his immersion into Indian music and spirituality. However, he experienced issues with maintaining a balance between a simple life versus a “rock star” hedonistic lifestyle. This struggle is chronicled in “It’s All Too Much,” a track from the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine that represents one of Harrison’s most psychedelic compositions.
He wrote the song “in a childlike manner,” Harrison says in I, Me, Mine, and his lyrics drew inspiration from “LSD experiences” that were “later confirmed in meditation.” He cites certain lines that support his assertion: “As I look into your eyes / Your love is there for me / And the more I go inside / The more there is to see.”
In a June 19, 1999 Billboard interview, Harrison explained that he wrote “It’s All Too Much” on the organ, and played it on the recording. During that discussion, he added that he wrote the songs for reasons other than those he gave in I, Me, Mine: “I just wanted to write a rock ’n’ roll song about the whole psychedelic thing of the time.”
Source: Kit O'Toole/somethingelsereviews.com
If we've learned anything over the past several years, it's that getting people to agree on anything is hard. Whether it's science, politics, religion, Laurel or Yanny or the geometry of the Earth, we are divided now more than ever.
As far as art and music go, we all agree that it's a matter of taste. But how do a person's musical tastes correlate to their political views? A new study called Tuning In To Politics by TickPick sought answers, and the results are fascinating — perhaps even encouraging!
A survey of over 1,000 Americans who identified themselves as either Democrats, Republicans or Independents found that one thing they agree on, no matter their politics, is classic rock! And two British classic rock bands stood atop the heap in terms of being universally revered: The Beatles and Queen.
Source: Andrew Magnotta/iheart.com
Festival organizers don’t often traffic in superlatives or absolutes. Much as sports coaches prop up the team over contributions of any single player, they’re more likely to stress the value of the whole package.
Amy Corbin, head of C3 Presesnts’ concert division, has that down when discussing the lineup she booked for this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival. “Two Rock and Roll Hall of Famers,” she says of Paul McCartney and Metallica, but she’s quick to add: “And it’s a nice balance with Childish Gambino and Arctic Monkeys and Travis Scott and Odesza — there’s literally something for everybody.”
When pressed about McCartney, though, she admits that getting the legendary Beatle was an above-and-beyond coup. Would she call Sir Paul THE biggest act ever booked to play ACL Fest?
Source: Peter Blackstock/music.blog.austin360.com
George Harrison always knew there was something special about muse, fashion model and photographer, Pattie Boyd. She was married to the Quiet Beatle from 1966-77 and then to his best mate and guitar God, Eric Clapton from 1979-89. She was the inspiration for many great love songs, including Harrison’s “Something” and Clapton’s “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight.” She has lived an exotic and glamorous life with rock stars and this charmed existence is the subject of a speaking tour and exhibition at Sydney’s Blender Gallery this May.
Boyd will chat with Rockwiz’s Brian Nankervis in Sydney and Melbourne this week. Some fortunate Sydneysiders also got a taster of these events when Boyd appeared at the Blender Gallery on Saturday. She spoke about her photographs, including ones she took herself and others from her private collection and was generous in answering lots of different questions.
Source: arts.theaureview.com
John Lennon’s sister is leading a campaign to offer Beatles fans the chance to own a part of Strawberry Field, and support a benefit campaign in the process.
Immortalized in the 1967 track “Strawberry Fields Forever,” the real Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army children’s home that was demolished in the ‘70s. The campaign aims to raise funds for a new support hub and visitor experience to be built on the site. Bricks from the original building are being sold for approximately $100 each, complete with a presentation box, limited-edition numbered to 2,500, and an embossed hologram.
“We want to open it to the public for the very first time, so that visitors can celebrate and enjoy it now and forever,” the Salvation Army said on the Strawberry Field website. “The visitor experience will tell the story of the Salvation Army, the children’s home that once stood here and the part that Strawberry Field played in the life of John Lennon and the Beatles. We will create a new training and work placement hub for young people with learning disabilities, where they can learn skills, gain work experience, grow in confidence and achieve. You can help us bring Strawberry Field back to life.”
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
John Lennon’s sister is leading a campaign to offer Beatles fans the chance to own a part of Strawberry Field, and support a benefit campaign in the process.
Immortalized in the 1967 track “Strawberry Fields Forever,” the real Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army children’s home that was demolished in the ‘70s. The campaign aims to raise funds for a new support hub and visitor experience to be built on the site. Bricks from the original building are being sold for approximately $100 each, complete with a presentation box, limited-edition numbered to 2,500, and an embossed hologram.
“We want to open it to the public for the very first time, so that visitors can celebrate and enjoy it now and forever,” the Salvation Army said on the Strawberry Field website. “The visitor experience will tell the story of the Salvation Army, the children’s home that once stood here and the part that Strawberry Field played in the life of John Lennon and the Beatles. We will create a new training and work placement hub for young people with learning disabilities, where they can learn skills, gain work experience, grow in confidence and achieve. You can help us bring Strawberry Field back to life.”
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Because of his work on 2001: A Spacey Odyssey, The Shining, Dr. Strangelove and Paths Of Glory, to name but a few, Stanley Kubrick is rightfully regarded as one of the best directors of all time.
That’s despite the fact that he only actually directed 13 feature films during his illustrious 46 year long career. Kubrick had many more unrealized ideas, scripts and projects, though.
I recently had the chance to speak to Kubrick’s former right-hand man Leon Vitali for the documentary on his career “Filmworker.” Vitali met the director when he was cast in "Barry Lyndon," but then put his acting career to one side so that he could work as Kubrick’s filmworker up until his death.
During this time he was privy to a lot of information and secrets regarding Kubrick, especially when it came to his unproduced films. Vitali was more than happy to open up about these projects to me, so I started things off by quizzing him about the rumors The Beatles’ wanted Kubrick to direct them in an adaptation of "The Lord Of The Rings."
“That was true. That was true,” was Vitali’s emphatic response. “They came to Stanley’s office to talk about it. I don’t think it was quite in Stanley Kubrick’s ball-park that idea. Yes, it was something that they came up with.”
Source: Gregory Wakeman /metro.us
